Sunday morning we woke up in time to have breakfast in Union Square (smoked salmon bagel for me - woot! and bacon and eggs for Ryan - yawn) before getting picked up for our wine tour. I had initially thought we had booked a tour of the Napa valley, but it turned out to be of the Sonoma valley, just on the other side of the hills. Not a problem because I had already been to the Napa, and we sensed that Napa was a bit snobbish with the ego of the Hunter valley. The wine tour, albeit expensive, was great. We were in a minibus with 8 other people (most tours offered by other companies are big tour coaches - blergh). So we drove over the Golden Gate bridge on what was our first overcast day of the trip, while the driver (named Ryan!) entertained the crowd with his anecdotes and other funny tales. Must be something to do with the name...
So we got to Sonoma and went to our first winery called Kastania - owned a run by a couple called Linda and Hoot Smith. Yep, Hoot was his name. They were a lovely couple and, lucky for us, this is the harvest season so all the vineyards were in the throws of making the wine, and so they showed us how it was all done. Kastania make 1000 cases of wine per year (compared to the millions-plus per year of large-scale wineries), and along with 2 other wineries we visited today, only sell their wine at the cellar door. Kastania major in Pinot Noir, so we basically tried different Pinot Noirs from different years and different Pinot Noir "clones". All were lovely, and we bought a bottle of the 2006 Pinot Noir Reserve which I am enjoying a glass of while I write this post.
Linda and Hoot thought it was great we had come "all the way from Australia", and the rest of our tour group (all Yanks) were impressed with our far we had travelled too. The general concensus seems to be they don't know if they could last a 13 hour plane ride. Hmmm...
So the next vineyard was Homewood - a one-man show where that one man, David Homewood, was in the throws of physically crushing the grapes when we were there. We tried some new stuff, like Zinfandel (which is the most commonly grown grape in Sonoma) and Cabernet Franc (always part of a blend, never drunk on its own). I really like Zinfandel - it's a really light red. And they had another blend called Flying Whizzbangers which I loved, so we bought a bottle of that too.
Then onto Sonoma Plaza for lunch (which I'm 99% sure I also went to on my Napa tour in 2002) and following the heavy dining the previous days, Ryan and I sought out a small lunch and found a food and wine flight. Small it was, although tasty and enough for the moment. Third stop was an Italian vineyard where we tried a bunch of varietals we had never even heard of before which were pretty lovely. Then we finished up at a more established winery and all shared a magnum of bubbly with a stunning outlook (right near where scenes for Bottleshock were filmed, for those who watched it).
Finally, we headed to Sausalito to get the ferry back home to the city at sunset which was beautiful to say the least. I had booked dinner ahead, just near the wharf we were to be dropped at, but because we were all having a good time on the tour it had gone on longer and so we got a later ferry back which dropped us unexpectedly at Fishermans Wharf. No worries, I just changed the dinner booking online on my phone while we were on the ferry, then we hopped in a cab at Fishermans Wharf and arrived at Chaya Brasserie.
Funnily, when I booked online they had asked "Is this dinner a special occasion?" and I had replied that it was my husband's 30th. So when we got to Chaya, not only had they got my last minute (literally) booking change online, but they still had our table ready - the best in the house, looking out to the Bay Bridge, then said Happy Birthday to Ryan. Hahaha. It was Sunday, so wine bottles were 50% off (!) so we shared some albacore tuna sashima for appetiser (not entree in the states!! That is a main!) along with some pinot gris. Then for main I had 2 sushi rolls - a San Francisco and seafood roll which were lovely, and Ryan had some duck breast which was amazing!!!! I'm now a full on duck convert! Then Ryan wanted dessert so he had a croissant bread and butter pudding - and they had a candle on it and written in chocolate Happy Birthday!!!! So mentioning that was the best idea ever....
So we then walked home the 7 blocks home to the Good Hotel. So what wasn't good about it you ask? Well overall it was OK... but the deal breakers were: 1) no fridge, 2) crap pillows and 3) BED BUGS!!!! During the wine trip I gradually came up in all these very itchy bites.... not uncommon for me because mossies love me, but these were big welts and today I have them all over my arms/hands and upper neck/back. They are all swollen too so that I can't wear my rings and my knuckles have disappeared - my right forearm is twice the size of my left too!! Ryan got bit too, but that was discovered on Monday, so that's tomorrow's blog.... stay tuned :)
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